The preliminary hearing of the judicial review of the State Administrative Court Law, Monday (12/4/2023). Photo by MKRI/Ilham W.M.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court (MK) held the preliminary hearing for the judicial review of Article 55 of Law No. 51 of 2009 on the Second Amendment to Law No. 5 of 1986 on the State Administrative Court (PTUN Law) against the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia on Monday, December 4, 2023 in the plenary courtroom. The panel hearing for Case No. 149/PUU-XXI/2023 was filed by Cecilia Soetanto.

Before the Constitutional Justices M. Guntur Hamzah, Anwar Usman, and Enny Nurbaningsih, legal counsel Yoshua Adhinugraha Mandiraatmadja delivered the subject matters. Article 55 of the PTUN Law reads, “A lawsuit may only be filed within a period of ninety days from the time of receipt of the decision of the State Administrative Body or Officer.” The Petitioner believes it has made it difficult for the Petitioner to obtain her inheritance rights.

Duplicate KTP (ID cards) is regulated in the Population Administration Law No. 24 of 2013. However, duplicate KTPs are still common, as the Petitioner experienced when the PTUN Decision No. 150/G/2023/PTUN.JKT was issued. Her father had two identities with very similar names, making it possible to issue two death certificates, two inheritance certificates, and resulting in two lawsuit cases due to administrative uncertainty over the same person with two different names. As a result of the error in the civil registration data, she could not have issue on inheritance rights resolved in the State Administrative Court. This is because civil registry office (Disdukcapil) cannot simply eliminate the double population data that is the basis for resolving the lawsuit in court for a legally binding judicial decision.

Therefore, in her petitum, the Petitioner requests the Court to declare Article 55 of the PTUN Law conditionally constitutional if interpreted that the grace period of ninety days in the case of double population data be calculated from the time of the issuance of a civil registry office certificate stating that it has checked the completeness of the population documents of the two KTPs and found no clear reason to eliminate one of the KTP data, thus requiring a PTUN decision.

Not Resolution for Concrete Cases

In his advice, Constitutional Justice Anwar Usman asked about the identity of Robert Soetanto and Raden Soetanto, which is at the center of this case, given that it is impossible for two ID cards to be issued to the same person.

Meanwhile, Constitutional Justice Enny Nurbaningsih observed that it is important for the Petitioner to understand that the Constitutional Court does not resolve concrete cases, so the background of the petition must be related to the constitutional loss caused by the norm being challenged.

“Although concrete cases can be a way to argue loss of constitutional rights, it is necessary to elaborate on the link the loss of constitutional rights, which rights have been violated by the enforcement of the norm being challenged,” she advised.

Constitutional Justice M. Guntur Hamzah advised the Petitioner to understand the Court’s Regulation (PMK) No. 2 of 2021 to understand the Court’s procedural law and the right format of judicial review petition. “Simply put, the petition does not cite the article being challenged against the 1945 Constitution. Then the Petitioner needs to study previous petitions so that it would not be ne bis in idem and strengthen the Petitioner’s legal standing that she has filed a lawsuit to the PTUN on this matter and it was ruled inadmissible because it passed the 90-day period,” he explained.

At the end of the hearing, Justice Guntur announced that the Petitioner would have 14 workdays to revise the petition. The petition can be submitted to the Registrar’s Office no later than Monday, 18 December, 2023.

Author       : Sri Pujianti
Editor        : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR            : Andhini S.F.
Translator  : Nyi Mas Laras Nur Inten Kemalasari/Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Disclaimer: The original version of the news is in Indonesian. In case of any differences between the English and the Indonesian versions, the Indonesian version will prevail.

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